Blood Price
by Plutobaby494
Summary: The bodies of dead men and woman, with there throats bit into are appearing in the cornstalks around a small town in South Dakota. The BAU is sent out to help and emotions rise when one of their own is taken! Better Summary!
1. Prologue

Plutobaby494: I decided to try another Criminal Minds fic!! Hope you like it!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds! I am just borrowing them and promise to return in one piece.

ON WITH THE FICCIE

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Prologue

The cornstalks swayed in the summer wind as the moonlight shone down on the humid earth. It was a warm still night, only being broken by the sounds of the swishing wind and the crickets hiding in the stalks. The land was cooling itself off from the hot sunlight that was previously shinning that day.

The silence was broken as a lone figure ran out of the stalks and hunched over taking deep wheezing breathes. The body of a young woman, in her early twenties gasped as she inhaled large amounts of air, the running finally getting to her.

A stick snapped close by and she fell back into a standing position, her body going erect. She swung her body around madly as she looked at her surroundings frantically, terror frozen on her face. Tears ran down her reddened cheeks, messing up her mascara as she sobbed.

With bare feet she stepped back and felt the crunch of the dry dirt beneath her feet. Blood gushed down both her arms, from long identical cuts that ran down the inside of her arm.

The pain hardly fazed her as she spun around looking for her attacker. A crow in the distance cawed and she jerked in fright turning towards the sound, paranoia making her jumpy.

Another figure stepped out of the cornstalks and she turned around to meet him. A sinister snarl appeared on the man's face, as he stepped towards the frightened woman.

She tried to run in the other direction but was stopped when the second figure threw himself at her and tackled her down, placing his large body on top of hers.

She thrashed in his hold and pounded her small fists into her attacker's chest and screamed. More crows took off from the fields as she continued to scream.

The man just kneeled so the body of the woman was between his legs and straddled her, keeping her legs pinned down. He grabbed her flailing fists and forced them still at her sides.

The woman looked up at her attacker and found a wild madness in his eyes as he stared down at her pale neck.

She squirmed and thrashed more as he lowered himself down to her neck and bit down hard, drawing blood.

The crimson liquid washed over her shoulder as he pressed down harder, staining her white shirt. She stopped thrashing and felt him suck and lap at her neck, until finally she lost consciousness.

Her attacker slowly pulled his sharpened teeth out of the woman's neck, licking the wound he had inflicted.

He smiled maliciously down at the dying woman and dropped her to the dirt. With one finger he brushed a blonde lock of hair out of her face and tilted his head to the side, staring at the pale lady.

With a smug look, he stood and wiped his mouth clean with the sleeve of his long sleeve shirt and smirked at the motionless body of his victim.

He pulled handkerchief out of his pocket and kneeled next to the now dead body. He wiped his saliva off the wound and pulled a sheathed knife out of his right cargo boot.

In one fluid motion he ripped off the woman's shirt and bra, snapping the buttons. He looked at her exposed breasts uninterested and unsheathed the knife. Kneeling down closer he dug his knife into her skin, burying it deep.

With clean cuts he carved a symbol into her chest crudely. After finishing his drawing, he stood and pulled his weapon out of her body. He sheathed his knife and stuck it back into his boot. Than he stood, looking down at his work one last time before disappearing in the endless fields of corn.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Plutobaby494: This is a plot bunny that wouldn't leave my head; it was actually giving me a headache, so I decided to write it down!! So what do you think?

PLEASE R&R


	2. Chapter 1

Plutobaby494: This is set in the first season, after Broken Mirror and before L.D.S.K, so sorry Emily fans!! This will have Elle in it!!

Disclaimer: Do not own Criminal Minds!

ON WITH THE FICCIE

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Chapter 1

**Quantico, Virginia. A week later. **

It was cloudy that morning, dark billows lining the sky. The air smelt of the rain that hadn't fell yet.

Spencer Reid, the BAU's resident genius stepped out of his car and wrapped his jacket tighter around his shoulders as a chilly wind brushed against him. His brown hair was tousled and messy as the wind ravaged at it.

Looking up at the darkening clouds, he sighed, a calculating look on his narrow face.

He jumped when a dark, muscular arm slung around his shoulder, and he heard a deep chuckle.

"Daydreaming, Reid?" Morgan's amused voice asked.

Reid turned to face the older man, a confused expression replacing his calculating one.

"No, I was trying to determine when the rain is going to fall" Reid answered, innocently.

Morgan glanced at the younger man, his eyebrows raised.

"Tell me you didn't want to be a weather man, when you were growing up?" he remarked, a small smirk on his handsome face.

"No… Meteorology is interesting hobby" Reid muttered, a small blush coloring his pale cheeks.

Morgan just chuckled and griped Reid's shoulder in a one-armed hug as they continued their trek into the building. They both took the elevator to the BAU office, but went their separate ways after that.

Reid dropped his messenger bag on his desk and ran his hands through his disheveled hair, trying to put it back into place. With a soft sigh sat down on his chair, looking over at the other office members.

JJ and Elle were chatting amiably, about what he couldn't' hear. Hotch and Gideon were in his office talking, presumably about a new case. Morgan was standing across the room, flirting with a blonde FBI agent that frequently visited the office.

Reid rolled his eyes and scoffed at the older man. Morgan would never change. He didn't notice someone join him, until she spoke.

"Disgusting isn't it" Garcia said, from his right. Reid didn't jump, being so used to her appearing acts. Sometimes he wondered if she had some special powers that she didn't tell anyone about.

He looked over at the blonde tech, who was leaning against his desk. She was looking at the two of them with a look that could almost be described as jealous.

"The way she's throwing herself at him" she continued, scowling lightly.

JJ, who had walked over with Elle, spoke up.

"He's allowed to talk to other woman, pen" she said, a smile on her face. She, Elle and Reid shared a knowing look, amused that Morgan hadn't figured it out yet.

Garcia pushed her glasses farther up the bridge of her nose as she stared at JJ indignantly.

"Not when I'm through with him, he's not" she huffed.

JJ chuckled, but didn't say anything more. Garcia turned back to look at Morgan, who was still shamelessly flirting with the blonde.

Reid sighed and looked away bored with the conversation. His eyes rested on the book that Garcia had clutched in between her hands.

Recognition flooded his brain as he found himself flashing back to his high school days, hiding in the underside of the stairwell with that same book.

"Hey, can I see that" he asked, grabbing the tech's attention and pointing towards the book. Garcia glanced at it, before handing it to him.

She immediately turned her attention back to Morgan, grumbling under her breath. Elle joined her.

JJ laughed at that before turning to see what had grabbed Reid's attention so. He had the book laid in his lap, flipping the pages every half a second.

"A book you haven't read before" JJ, said teasing him. "I'm shocked"

Reid looked up at the blonde media liaison, a bothered look on his face.

"JJ, there are over five million books in the world. Even if I started right now, I wouldn't be able to read them all" Reid said his voice serious.

"It was a joke, Reid" JJ replied, a small smile on her face.

Reid sighed and turned away, a light blush on his face. JJ turned back to Garcia, who was still seething at Morgan, absently chewing on her thumbnail.

She was about to comment, further on how slutty the blonde was but Hotch came walking out of his office, Gideon in tow.

"We have another case" he said, "We'll debrief on the plane. Wheels up in an hour" he said, leaving no room for argument.

Garcia bounced off, forgetting that she had given Reid her book and met up with Morgan, who was walking back to his desk to collect him things. JJ and Elle had both left also, going to get ready for a new case.

Reid glanced at the book in his hands one more time before setting it gingerly on his desk. He'd give it to Garcia later.

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It was sixty minutes later, the members of the BAU found themselves airborne. They were all gathered around the main table, waiting for the briefing to start.

JJ dropped case files into all there laps and than took her seat, turning to face Hotch.

He faced his team with his normal stoic face set as he pulled out a crime scene photo.

"Three victims, over the last month were found in the cornstalks of Miller, South Dakota. All bled to death from incisions on their necks. They were in there twenties and as far as we can tell had no connection to each other"

"Incisions, like with a knife" Elle asked, dragging her finger across her throat horizontally, indicating slash marks.

Hotch glanced her, "No, like with teeth"

He pulled a photo from his case file and held in up in front of him.

A head shot of a blonde haired woman laid on the dirty ground, her eyes glazed over in death, stared back at them. Her neck was covered in dried blood and half her face was eaten away but despite that fact, they could tell she had once been very pretty.

He passed it around.

Morgan spoke up this time, "Come on man, vampires?!!" he said, his tone mocking and his eyebrows raised.

"Actually, throughout history there were reports of victims brutally slain by what could only be explained as vampires. Even in the police there were unsolved cases that couldn't be explained" Reid interrupted, before Hotch could speak.

Morgan sent him a pointed look, but didn't say anything more. Hotch sent the genius a thankful look.

"They weren't drained of blood but did lose a significant amount. Official cause of death was blood loss" he continued, only to be interrupted by Elle.

"How did they lose that much blood from just a small bite?" she asked, looking skeptical.

"It's actually not that hard. The carotid is the major artery that supplies the brain with blood and because it's one of the most exposed in the body, all the killer would have to do is apply pressure. That why is so dangerous to get hit in the throat" Reid said.

"If that's true, than wouldn't they be brain dead" Morgan commented.

"If she had gotten to the hospital and tried to stem the bleeding than yes, but blood loss would be imminent" Reid answered.

"So were all agreed on how she died?" Hotch said, annoyed.

No one commented.

JJ sighed before continuing the briefing,

"Isabelle Richardson was found in the cornstalks of Jared Benson's field, early this morning. She had been dead a week"

She looked at the headshot as it came around to her. Isabelle's hair was clumped with dirt and bugs continued to eat her flesh.

"Why so long?" Elle asked.

"The corn reaches over three acres, that's at least three football fields put together. There's no way a farmer would walk through all of it" JJ said, a small smile on her face.

"The perfect place to hide a murder?" Gideon said muttered, speaking for the first time.

"Were all the victims found in the corn?" Reid asked, after a short silence.

"Yes, but not in the same field and not as far out. Kyle West was found the next morning after his murder and Henry Nolan was found two days after his" Hotch answered, checking his file.

"So she tried to escape the unsub, ran away" Morgan said.

"But she was barefoot. Where did her shoes go?" Gideon asked.

"Maybe the unsub took them" Elle spoke up.

"Why?" Gideon asked, "All of the others had their shoes. Why hers?"

No one had an answer.

Hotch picked up another photo of Isabelle and passed it around. It was a chest shot this time.

"An emblem was carved into their chests. The cuts were clean so we're guessing it was done with an outdoors knife" Hotch said, continuing the briefing.

As the picture reached Reid, he scrunched his brow in confusion. It was triangular at the top and a hooked cross like structure that was shaped like a dagger at the bottom. The two ends were curved downwards, giving the impression of fangs. **(Authors Note: If you can't see it, there's a picture in my profile) **

"It looks like an Ankh" Reid said, still wearing his puzzled expression. The shape was correct… to a point.

"The Egyptian hieroglyph for eternal life" Reid continued, seeing more confused expressions.

"It looks like… Are you not sure?" Morgan asked, his voice containing a hint of mocking.

"A normal Ankh has a flat bottom and the sides are straight, not curved. It looks like the unsub modified it to represent the immortality of the undead" Reid answered, hearing Morgan's unspoken challenge.

"But what's the significance?" Elle said, glaring at both boys.

"Maybe he's trying to prove something. That he believes he's immortal" Reid said, smiling impishly.

Hotch nodded; it was a good of answer as any until they found more.

"Lacerations running from the inside of both their forearms down to their elbows were also found, done with the same knife" Hotch said.

Hotch grabbed the pictures from his teammates and pushed back into the manila folder that was on his lap. He turned to Reid and Morgan.

"I want you two to focus on the second victim, Kyle West. He was a local" Hotch said, and turned to JJ.

"Try and stop any of this from getting out of the city. The last thing we need is the press from bigger towns to get wind of this" he said, and she nodded.

"Elle, Gideon and I will focus on Isabelle" he said, "She was in town visiting her sister when she was attacked"

Everyone nodded, turning back to do their own things to get ready for this case.

TO BE CONTINEUD

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Plutobaby494: Well… what do ya think? I put a lot of thought into this, so I hope it's good! Thanks to all my reviewers!

ladypunz, princess89, Rebellion Author, kuruni, PrInCeSsFBi.

You guys rock!!

PLEASE R&R


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